Eternal Slumber
by rancidstarlight
Summary: I'm terrible at summaries. Read.
1. The Setting

"Oh...so nice...so nice..."  
  
Kagome murmured, face down on her pillow. It had been two weeks since she'd last returned home. The pale comforter begged her to stay a moment or two longer, but any hope of that happening quickly died upon Mrs. Higurashi entering Kagome's bedroom, Souta following close behind.  
  
"Ohayou, Kagome-chan. Time to get up." Mother said gently, drawing back the curtains to result in burning bright light streaming on her face.  
  
Not fun. Kagome moaned and sat up, walking into the bathroom to brush her teeth. A small gasp brushed past her lips as she studied her reflection. There wasn't so much of a huge difference as to be frightening or anything. She hadn't been gone long enough for something of that magnitude to come about. But Kagome didn't readily recognize herself. /You're just sleepy./ She frowned, leaning over to flip the water spigot.  
  
Now that day had turned into 2 days, 2 days into what felt like forever. A week, actually. He got pissed when she was only two minutes late—although how he figured out the time so precisely without a watch was something she lacked the ability to know. Kagome felt like she had fallen into routine. Everything sparkling, shiny smooth normal. The cold astringency was somehow muted by her newfound awareness that this was how life should be for her. She wasn't supposed to know how to make arrows, or to pull shards out of bloodthirsty demons, or to get a bloodthirsty demon to turn back to the friend she companied and loved.  
  
Kagome wasn't used to it at all. She longed for a random outburst from a friend. Anything strange was welcome to her eyes at this point. /So why don't you go back, baka? / The group needed her, didn't they? To get the shards. To fight the big bad guy and to save the day. And that was it. She wasn't that important, after all. He could find Kikyou, now, and they could go searching in their happy splendor. The baby had told her—Onigumo, actually—that she was pure except for her hatred of Kikyou. Because Kikyou was taking her away from Inuyasha, and spilling jealousy into her heart. So leaving him so suddenly should've killed that darkness. Now she was like Mary, mother of God, or something. Entirely clear of the black plague that seemed to be like the gauze hanging on some fancy dress upon each and every single person in the entirety of the universe. Kagome sighed louder then she'd planned while sitting in Math class, cheek turned to face the window.  
  
"Is this about the badass boyfriend, Ome-chan?"  
  
Kagome laughed at the question, knowing it was partly true. She shook her head and smiled in an attempt to ward off any others, burrowing her chin into the crook of her arm. Kagome felt oddly confused. For the past three days she hadn't been dreaming of mutant protractors, rulers with razor sharp edges and shiny teeth. She had been dreaming of sakura blossoms. Flowers that she didn't even like all that much. Maybe she had been cursed. Maybe she was just in a deep, long sleep, that had lasted for a week. And the others were worried about her. And she had a fever. And she was twisting and turning and maybe she was bleeding profusely from some limb. Her newfound injuries got longer and more gruesome before Ayumi nudged her once more after her question wasn't answered.  
  
"...I guess so, then."  
  
She didn't try to pat Ayumi's shoulder to reassure her. The bell rang, and then she left the room with her backpack slung carefully over one slender arm. An arm that had toned muscles that many of her friends questioned. 'It looks like she could throw me into a wall' and 'Wow, have you been weightlifting?' and 'Where have you been?'. The third one was the one asked the most often when they touched her hard flesh, and noted the calluses on her knuckles. It looked like she was preparing to start fighting with someone. Which she was, in a sense. But not if when she woke up from whatever odd coma she was in...then she would have no muscles, no calluses, and she wouldn't wake up at the crack of dawn.  
  
"What's WRONG with you?"  
  
She asked herself silently. 15 minutes ago she had been happy. Peachy keen, jellybean. Right as rain. Kagome was confused and restless and...what was the word? Lonely. Not meaning to buy somehow failing to do so, she left home without saying a word, feet about to skim the top of the well. The heavy, Please Don't Kill Me I Brought You Presents backpack was filled with more things then usual. Maybe she wasn't asleep.  
  
But then her hands and knees hit the bottom of the pit with a rather large bang.  
  
"—Itai..."  
  
She wished they weren't mad, or worried as hell. She didn't like to inspire worry.  
  
/...am I dying, or what?/ 


	2. Fear

Everything was quiet, the same as a few days ago. There weren't to be more shouts or screams, nor anymore arguments between the half demon and the miko reincarnate. Those few days seemed longer than the hanyou can count.  
  
Within the small cabin of the elder miko, the inu hanyou sat quietly beside an unconscious Kagome. His posture held motionlessly still, though he had been in the same spot for hours now. Ever since the day the miko reincarnate fell to this curse, he had gotten more and more concerned.  
  
Slender arms rested in the lips of his crimson sleeves, the hanyou kept his amber gaze upon the blank expression of the young school girl. His own visage was now smudged with sleeplessness, scowling brows slanted downwards as rings hung around his amber eyes. A willing look of worry held amongst fatigued features as he seemed to be waiting for her to arise any moment now, though unknowing that it was a coma she had fell into.. or perhaps just did not wish to believe she might not wake up again.  
  
"Kagome.." He mumbled softly, his eyes never left her languid look. "Get up already."  
  
His impatient nature was not cut out to wait like this, though he had rarely moved from waiting by her side since whatever happened to her. He did not know where the houshi, youkai taijiya, kitsune and the old hag herself went nor was he curious to find out.  
  
A light sigh emitted as he still saw no move in her, sleep lacked eyes began to shut, only to have them jerked open again. The same process repeated and he finally gave in, drifting off into a light snooze.   
  
The last thing she remembered in Sengoku Jidai was Naraku. And only him. It wasn't like normal--Inuyasha yelling at her for jumping through the well, Shippou clinging to her leg...it was just this entirely too blurry battle, and then darkness. He had said something, he had said something and then Kanna had walked towards her with that mirror.  
  
/"To get the Shikon no Tama, you must be able to see the jewels, correct?"/  
  
There it was. He'd done something--she'd done something. Kagome suddenly felt woozy as she climbed out of the well. Things seemed like they were made of plaster. Like everything was hollow, and she was the only piece of reality. And she hadn't realized it. Inuyasha could be singing something on the Billboard music list, and still she would've been oblivious.  
  
Something was so wrong. Crossing her arms over her chest, she dropped the backpack that probably didn't exist onto the wooden floor and walked outside into the sun. Children were playing...everywhere, smiles and laughter. And this idea that she belonged...it struck her. Was she dying, or was she just asleep?  
  
That was the problem. She didn't know how to fix what was wrong. Kagome walked aimlessly, out of the chibi shrine, and back towards her school. Her feet refused to listen to her pleas for them to stop, and so she continued. 


	3. Wonder

The others of the group had mainly waited outside, awaiting for any news of their unconscious comrade. They were also defending the village from nearly daily attacks as the demons had somehow gotten word that Kagome was ill and Inuyasha unwilling to budge from his spot. The unsettling thing was that none of the demons had been a challenge, not that the fighters were complaining.  
  
Shippou was walking around with Kirara, the two small demons gathering berries and whatnot for their meal, from the nearby bushes. It was the right season, and nearly all the fruit trees and bushes they had encountered were bountiful, as they helped themselves to the food.  
  
Sango was currently sitting on the outskirts of the town in her taijiya outfit, should anymore attacks follow for the day. ~At least they're keeping us in shape~ she thought to herself, a grim line set on her face where a smile should have been. The young woman constantly worried for Kagome, and now Inuyasha as well, for the hanyou had refused food and rest since Kagome had fallen under the curse or whatever her ailment. Her large weapon lay resting on the ground behind her as her sharp chocolate eyes scanned the area for any signs of warnings of approaching demons.   
  
His mind wandered, yet the time had only allowed him the little rest he now had. Dreams or perhaps nightmares would easily prey upon him as they did to the school girl thought perhaps he was too tired to take note.  
  
A canine ear flicked as the hanyou snapped awake, mumbling curses to himself that he had fallen asleep. 'What if Kagome woke up during it? Bleh.' A hand lifted to brush back the silvery locks that had fell to his face when his head lowered in subconsciousness and returned to the other sleeve shortly after.  
  
He had knew of the many demons who had bothered to show themselves, or was half conscious of it. But since the others' hadn't much trouble with dealing with them, he couldn't care less that they made their approaches.  
  
"What happened?" He groaned and fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat as he watched the school girl, though made no motion to get up. Shifting his gaze to the surroundings of the dark hut, he noticed little change. 'Where did they go?' They, being the others who would usually be with Kagome and himself, not yet realizing they were defeating demons and just as worried as he was.  
  



	4. Meeting

How do you try to wake yourself up when you aren't sure if you're dreaming? What if the well was just broken or something. What if some intergalactic overlord had finished the jewel, set it in her pocket, and now her mother had become some slave master who wouldn't allow her to leave. That didn't make much sense, but it was possible in her suddenly feverish mind. She felt entirely too warm. As if the world was burning and she was in the center of it.  
  
Was she really dying? Was this horrible sinking feeling her lifeblood proverbially flowing of her? Was her breath slowing down, or was her heart racing? If she was dreaming, was Inuyasha there standing guard like always? Was she dead? Was this heaven? Was this hell? Her feet wouldn't stop moving. She wanted to burst into tears because of this lack of knowing. She felt so hopeless. There was no way she could save herself. She truly believed that.  
  
Death was probably what Naraku wanted, if he had cursed her. But this was a better sort of death. A quiet one. Not like when the Shichinintai had poisoned her, and she had awoken to see Inuyasha's face covered with tears. Would it be raining if he was crying? Was Sango alright? Was Miroku alright? Was Shippou and Kirara? Was she the only one affected by it all? To wake up would be bliss. Utter heaven. But she was in a void. A void like her own school, with kids like her own friends. Except when she blinked, everyone disappeared except for a lone couple standing in the center of the courtyard.  
  
They were dressed in the usual uniform, and Kagome had yet to take a closer look.   
  
"What's her doing out here?"  
  
The hanyou's fidgets had calmed as he remembered asking the monk when they had found the girl midway between the well and the Goshinboku. Her body limp, her eyes shut, no more scolding words did he hear from her.  
  
Oh, it had been so long since he had heard something from her, anything.  
  
...  
  
"Probably was just tired and fell asleep on her way back, you should've been there waiting." The monk had said solemnly as they both approached.  
  
"I can't be waiting for her all the time, you know! Wake her up and let's get going!"  
  
He had only then realized how painfully insensitive he had been, amber gaze came to stare blankly at the ground before him, hands ruffled in those large sleeves, gripped into concealed fists.  
  
He knew he had to let the events play out in his mind, and had trambled slightly in frustration at how he had reacted to it all.  
  
"She's still alive, right?!"  
  
His question returned with a light nod.  
  
"Damn it." He muttered softly before lifting his gaze up to the girl again, still, seeing no motion. Reaching out a clawed hand and hestitated, but clasped her shoulder and shook her with an overwhelming force, somehow oblivious that he excerted that much strength. "Get up, Kagome! You have shards to search for!" He knew that was not the only reason he wanted her up, but seeing her, she would've gladly yelled 'Sit' ten times over for him saying so.  
  
And patiently did he calmed himself and wait for that dreaded -yet now hoped for- word coming from her. 


	5. Tell

Her head fell to the side, body limp as ever.  
  
--  
  
She felt a tremor course through her body before she stopped in her tracks to watch the lone figures standing beside the flag pole. The female's head lifted, and Kagome blinked. It was her reflection, and yet it wasn't. There was a subtle hint of weariness in this girl's dark eyes, a bit of malice lurking in the twitch of her crimson lips. The male had his face turned to the ground, silver hair glossy and thick as it reached past his waist. Something was missing though...as if he should be wearing a baseball cap, or bunny ears...  
  
...or dog ears. Kagome bit her lip and drew blood, blood she could taste. "She's here. Does that mean that she's sleeping, or is she dying? The curse could've taken effect. There might be no hope for her now. Ah. He's getting restless. Worried, possibly. How could she make him worry so."  
  
"Waking up would be a good idea, now, for that little girl. See, she looks so confused. Lost. Like a lamb. Wolves eat lambs...coyotes. She is prey without him to help her." The words were said softly, like a lullaby that made her woozy with a sickness that she shouldn't feel. The fever thickened. She must be sick or something...  
  
"If she wants out of this, she must save herself." The male finally spoke. It wasn't familiar, the voice, although it was a comfort when it broke the woman's rant. /"She's cursing you, you know. The sleep will subside when you break your mirror. Otherwise you will be trapped. Forever sleeping, like that American Sleeping Beauty that is just so popular. Your spinning wheel was that well, and when you began the quest it pricked your finger. Only now has this poison taken effect..."/  
  
The man was not Inuyasha. It was the child, the child who had so distinctly told her her faults and laughed at her displeasure. "Break the mirror. I don't exactly like this woman. And you remind me of her." The 'her' was someone this Onigumo failed to speculate on.  
  
"What mirror?"  
  
--  
  
"...mirror."  
  
The word was a whisper. Like a sigh, but still a word, before her lips closed once more.  
  
Her face .. seemed red.  
  
"...mirror."  
  
The voice drifted to his alert ears as his half shut eyes blinked open. His fading hope that she still did not hear him was sparked again when the voice he knew, came from her. He again shook her though more cautious now. "Kagome!" His tried to calm his voice and did quite well at it, though a rushed tone was still noticable.  
  
Her face.. He noted again. Should it be as red as she looked then? He reached out a hand to touch her cheek, only to feel the burn that seemed to engulf her into whichever world she drifted into.  
  
He blinked, what was he supposed to do? His naive nature protruding, as his nose twitched and took in her scent.. At least now he was sure this was Kagome.  
  
"Gah." He quickly jumped to his feet and looked around the hut. He barely knows anything about getting sick and less of how to treat one who was bore down with a disease. 


	6. Hints

"She got that one out." The woman said, surprised. "She got that one out." The words were repeated as she laughed. "Made him happy, didn't you. You're going to be a shell soon enough. Hollow. Breaking the mirror can only work in such a short amount of time. You're slow here. In your mind, you think you have all the time in the world. That's the trouble with you children. You believe you can dawdle for eternity, and expect someone to wait."  
  
She smiled. It was not a bitter smile, but one exchanged between friends. "I'm in your mind, so I act the way you wish, although you have no control over my actual actions. I talk to you this way because that is how you secretly believe I do. Onigumo has long hair because you wanted it to be Inuyasha. Naraku is finishing the jewel. Your assumptions were correct. And why this child--this fruit of the filthy hanyou's loins--is trying to help you is something I will never want to know. He couldn't get me, so now he wants my counterpart. You're making him worry. That's not nice to make someone worry so."  
  
Her fever faded. Kagome looked at the woman with clear eyes. "The mirror is here. It is there, it is everywhere. You are trapped in Kanna's mirror, because Naraku wished it so. Just break it, and you are free. I am a sick fellow, but you are even sicker. You're fading fast."  
  
"No one here to guide you. Now you're on your own." They both crossed their arms, and they watched her. Kagome clenched her fists.  
  
"Where do I go? Give me a hint! You don't like Naraku! You both hate him! you follow him because one of you belongs to him and one of you is bored with wandering and eating souls! Let me go! This was one hell of a trick. I could've gone on forever, thinking Inuyasha had done something to the well. Thinking someone had broken it. You and I will never be friends. We will never love each other. We will never want to care about each other because he will always separate us, and our decisions mold us to be the people, or in your case the zombie, we are today."  
  
"I chose to love him, and you chose to stab him into a tree."  
  
Kagome let out a shaky breath. Onigumo giggled.  
  
"That is the mirror."  
  
Onigumo threw his head to the side, the glee in his eyes evident, while Kikyou, the dead miko, let out an angered groan.  
  
He didn't know what to do. What to do to help her, to help himself. She had spoken one word and now did it sink in. "Mirror?" His panic gulped as he stood motionless in the small space and looked to the one laying even more still upon the ground.  
  
He stepped towards her and paused looking over her, amber eyes clouded with confusion. "What do you mean?" He would talk aloud, hoping that she'd hear him and wake up just because she'd know he was there.. beside her.  
  
'Perhaps she doesn't want to hear you.' Oh great, now the voice inside his head started talking to him. 'Shut up.' He retorted back and it seemed to end.  
  
He comtemplated.. if he was capable of such an action, and the only thing coming to mind is the soul tapping mirror held by the void in white. Was that what she referred to? He would've.. should've known that Naraku would be behind this.  
  
Clasping his resting blade in hand again, the sword and sheath again was tucked into the fabric belt around his waist. Looking blankly at her still, if she had meant something else, she had better make herself clear before he bound off somewhere looking aimlessly for traces of that other void and that other half demon. 


	7. Help

Kanna. The small child with white hair, clutching a mirror. She entered the village without a word, a shadow with the darkening sky, as she walked towards the hut where Kagome stayed.  
  
/...you can't hear me. But I'm trying./  
  
Thump.  
  
--  
  
The mirror. Kanna had a mirror. But maybe Onigumo meant something that didn't exist. Something that was just -there-. And it had to be broken. Thump. The world shook, and her heart skipped a beat. Thump. Kikyou grinned. Malice. Such a face, such a lovely face should not be able to hold such malice, but it did, because Kagome thought it so. Onigumo looked innocent, for when Kagome saw him, he was a child. And now he was feigning the costume of Inuyasha.  
  
Kagome walked towards them, and raised her hand to strike Kikyou. "I wouldn't do that. You'd only hurt yourself. We're in you. Kill us, you die. Smart girls would stop now, and give up. Go home, take a shower, kiss your mother, and go to bed. It would be the last time you could see them. You want to see him don't you? Is that what makes you keep going? Kanna's coming for him. To see if he really can save you. Naraku likes to test. I heard you tell him 'mirror'. And she'll bring him a mirror. He'll be stuck with you. And you'll die."  
  
He'd be here? Kagome almost smiled, but she was too scared.  
  
--  
  
/You're going to find the mirror, and then you will see me...and I can wake up. He's getting the jewel. He's.../  
  
/...almost done...gomen./  
  
Kanna, the void, being one, she beared no scent in her wake nor did she spoke to alarm him of her presence. Her approach went unknown.  
  
That is.. until that thump echoed to the habitants of the hut. Perhaps it had only meant something to one of them, or perhaps both.  
  
He had waited for her, for something from her to give him a hint what he was to do. By then, he has had enough of sitting in one place and had ached to move about but at the same time, refused to leave her alone.  
  
The odd thump caught his attention, it didn't sound like anything he could easily recognize. It wasn't the taijiya's bone weapon hitting the ground nor was it the houshi being crushed under some demon's claws. Turning his attention to the door, he stood studying the echo before a shifting a look back to the unconscious girl.  
  
Raising the blinds that covered the door out and over his head, he peeked outside, and unexpectedly seeing the void he was about to search for coming towards them. He had almost snickered at that.. almost.  
  
"Stay here." He turned over his shoulder to speak to the absentminded girl, seemingly those words out from instinct. Stepping out, the blinds flapped and shut, he stood upon the small clearing before the hut.  
  
"It's her mirror." He watched her approach. "Perhaps this won't take -too- long." His hand neared the hilt of the Tetsusaiga, though knowing too well what her mirror can do, he held back from an offensive assult.  
  
'Did she.. capture her soul again?' 


	8. Near Arrival

"My soul wasn't stolen...was it...?"  
  
She asked wonderingly, hand dropping to her side. Kikyou didn't flinch, her words oily like a used car salesmen. Kagome was disgusted. Was she that corrupt? No. Kikyou never would do that. Kikyou was too elegant. And there went the telltale flinch.  
  
"No. Your soul wasn't stolen. Little bitch. I'm not taking this illusion off until he comes, and until I make him give up on you. Naraku is killing right now--gathering those shards. Kanna came to the hut to gather yours. Right this very instant. He left to see her. To greet her. Polite, hmm? A well trained mutt."  
  
Onigumo snorted. Kikyou hardened her eyes. Or...whoever she was, did. "Kanna doesn't have a big enough mirror for you. Inuyasha; he might just fit. You are in a coma. And comatose you shall be until we let you go. Or, really, until he lets you go. He's the one that put a shard of Kanna's broken mirror right on your chest. Right on that pretty red bow you are -always- wearing. How nice."  
  
The silver haired boy lifted slender fingers to touch her chin. The touch was nothing like when he was cradled to her heart, but it was enough to get her dizzy again. "Your act was working, Kagura. She was breaking. Kanna is going to get Inuyasha now...though in a--more permanent fashion, hopefully? Then again, Kanna can throw him in here with one of those shards."  
  
"The dog is screwed." Kikyou/Kagura pointed to the pond that they stood beside, which had suddenly swirled.  
  
-----  
  
Kanna continued walking until she was a good five feet away from the hanyou.  
  
"He wishes you to suffer. Have you been suffering?"  
  
The words weren't even posed as a question, as if the lilt at the end of her sentence could be construed as emotion.   
  
His casual look knit tight into a scowl as his gaze transfixed upon Kanna. "You will." He pulled forth the hilt of the rusty metal. It transformed into the giant blade as the tip of it nearly came into contact with the glossy glass in her hands.  
  
'There has to be a way to break it.. to free Kagome.' He did believe that Kagome's soul was trapped within it.  
  
"What have you done with Kagome?" His blade held steady though his voice rose with angered tones. The blade pointed threateningly at her.  
  
His arm twitched out of his control, his grip upon the heavy blade's hilt grew tighter as he waited, holding back from attacking her. It would be easier to just swing the blade at her, and undoubtly have it swung back at him. Though somehow, he still waited for an reply from her.  
  
Looking to her with anger tainted gaze, his hate for her, Naraku and whoever else associately with the latter only grew.  
  



End file.
